The Crimean Bridge is a gigantic pointless construction project. When will the bridge to Crimea be built?
The idea of creating a transport link to Crimea was revived with the annexation of the peninsula into Russia in 2014. The implementation of this grandiose project will connect the Crimean region with the mainland of the state, will open up great opportunities for activating the tourism industry of Crimea, and Russians will have the right to visit the peninsula without having to cross.
Surely, every Russian is interested in the question of how the construction of the bridge to Crimea is going and when it will be built. Now it is in full swing, and this article carefully examines the Kerch Bridge project itself and its features.
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Update May 15, 2018. It's finished! Read our article about the solemn ceremony. From May 16, everyone will be able to travel to Crimea by car across the bridge!
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History of the Kerch Bridge. In fact, the idea of a bridge arose a long time ago, back in the days Russian Empire, under Tsar Nicholas II. The original sketch of the project was created back in 1910, but the bridge was not built due to the outbreak of the First World War.
Then they returned to the bridge project in the 30s, during the time of Stalin (who built it in Malaya Sosnovka). Then the idea boiled down to building railway across the Kerch Strait, but the implementation of the bridge was prevented by the outbreak of World War II.
In 1944, in the shortest possible time, within seven months, a railway bridge was erected, which, however, was dismantled in 1945 due to damage to part of the supports by ice from the Sea of Azov.
Another sketch of the project, taking into account all the errors, was created in 1949, but it was also not implemented.
Russia and Ukraine actively discussed the creation of a transport crossing through the Kerch Strait in 2010-2013, and a bilateral agreement was concluded. But the construction of the Kerch Bridge began after Crimea became part of the Russian Federation.
This project is technically very complex. From several options, a sketch of a bridge across the Kerch Strait with a total length of 19 kilometers across the Tuzla Spit was chosen. The bridge will have 4 lanes highway with a speed of 120 km/h and 2 tracks for railway transport.
Length of the Kerch Bridge to Crimea
The bridge's capacity is up to forty thousand vehicles per day. It is stated that travel along the highway will be free. Although there is a lot of debate in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet as to whether travel across the bridge will be free for motorists. Every now and then opinions and rumors appear that they will still charge some kind of fee for travel.
The exact answer will be known when traffic begins on the Kerch Bridge, but judging by indirect evidence, it will still be free. For example, this is evidenced by the fact that no funds from foreign investors were involved in the construction. The entire project is funded by the state. This may have been done specifically to maintain free travel for cars.
The Stroygazmontazh company of the famous Russian businessman Arkady Rotenberg was appointed as the contracting company for the construction of this grandiose project. 
At least 70 proposals were considered before choosing this company. It was necessary to find a contractor who met all the requirements for construction time, cost and contract performance guarantees.
This company has good experience in constructing such a project. Stroygazmontazh is the main contractor of Gazprom for the construction of gas pipelines.
Also, Stroygazmontazh LLC has the right to attract subcontractors: it is known that certain negotiations were held with companies from South Korea to attract professionals to work.
Construction cost
How much does the bridge to Crimea cost? Kerch Bridge will be one of the most expensive bridges in the world due to the complexity of constructing the structure. The initial cost was 50 billion rubles, but then it increased due to the combination of road and railway lines. The increase in value was also influenced by the weakening of the Russian currency against the US dollar.
In the winter of 2015, based on the results of the bidding, the maximum cost of the work was established - it amounted to 228.3 billion rubles.
The construction of a transport crossing across the strait is financed by the state from the National Welfare Fund.
Length and width of the Kerch Bridge
The bridge structure is being built along the Tuzla Spit. This will allow you to use small area sushi in the strait to strengthen the entire structure. To meet the time frame, construction is being carried out in several places at once.
The length of the bridge to Crimea is 19 km. Among them:
- 7 km: section of the sea from the Tuzla Spit to the island of the same name;
- 6.5 km: land area on the island;
- 6.1 km: section of the sea from the island to Kerch.
The width of the bridge will consist of four lanes of 3.75 m each, a 3.75 m wide shoulder and 0.75 m of reinforced shoulder.
The depth of the Kerch Strait at the bridge construction site
The width of the Kerch Strait is from 4.5 to 15 km. The maximum depth is 18 meters.
The support piles will be anchored to stable bedrock to strengthen the entire structure. The piles will be buried in the ground to a depth of 90 m.
For this we will use:
- reinforced concrete supports for immersion up to 16 m in the Kerch area;
- piles made of pipes with a reinforced concrete core for immersion up to 94 m in the main section;
- reinforced supports reinforced concrete for diving up to 45 meters in the Taman Peninsula area.
Delivery and completion of construction of the Kerch Bridge
Undoubtedly, everyone is looking forward to the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait. This large-scale project is planned to be implemented as soon as possible (within four years). According to the plan, a labor movement could be launched as early as December 2018. The final completion date for the Kerch Bridge is June 2019.
Bridge over the Kerch Strait on the map
Get to the Crimean peninsula from Russian territory through new bridge it will be possible in Krasnodar region, on the Taman Peninsula.
Kerch Strait and bridge to Crimea on the map:
In addition to the bridge itself, approaches to it will also be built: road and railways so that residents and guests of Russia can freely move from Crimea to the mainland of the state, and back. These approaches will be part of the A-290 Novorossiysk-Kerch highway, which passes through the city of Anapa.
From the side, the length of the approach will be 22 km, from the Taman Peninsula - 40 km.
The construction and commissioning of the Kerch Bridge will open up great prospects in the field of domestic tourism in Russia. To visit Kerch, Simferopol, get a good tan on the Black Sea shore, swim and simply travel through the wild places of Crimea, you will not need to prepare a foreign passport. All you have to do is buy a train ticket or get into your car - and you can go on a trip!
Video about the construction of the Kerch Bridge:
After Russia annexed Crimea in the spring of 2014, relations between the fraternal peoples deteriorated greatly, and accordingly, the transport connection between Crimea and Russia through Ukraine became under threat. In this regard, Vladimir Putin made an unprecedented decision to build a bridge that would connect the peninsula with Russia. But the concern of local residents is increasing every day; they want to know when the bridge to Crimea will be built. Let's try, based on facts, to find out whether a bridge to Crimea will be built at all.
How important is the Crimean bridge
The Kerch Bridge will be able to boost the economy on the peninsula by restoring the flow of tourists to the level of Soviet-era levels. At least this is what the Crimean authorities say. But creating such a grandiose structure in this area is a very complex construction and engineering task. How will it ultimately be implemented?
With the opening of the bridge there will be an economic boom, which is associated with the fact that Crimea will be able to receive at least 10 million tourists, but so far these figures are very far from being reached, because in 2015 the peninsula received only 4 million vacationers. Naturally, this is much less than in Ukrainian times, however, despite this, tourists began to spend more money. Indeed, when the construction of the bridge across the Kerch Strait is completed, completely new prospects will open up for the region. In general, the launch of the bridge will provide the peninsula with a colossal volume of cargo/goods and passenger turnover, while most of the economic problems of Crimea will be solved, including the following:
- Year-round service ground transport between the peninsula and mainland Russia, regardless of weather conditions;
- Queues for the ferry will become a thing of the past;
- Food security of the peninsula, correspondingly reducing prices for various goods;
- Investment attractiveness of Crimea.
As you can see, the importance of the Kerch Bridge is difficult to overestimate, just like the uniqueness of the project itself.
The uniqueness and scale of the Kerch Bridge
The very timing and scale of construction have already become unique, because this will be the largest bridge crossing, the length of which will be 19 kilometers. per day throughput will amount to 47 trains and 40 thousand cars. They will even build the bridge in record time - 3 years, that is, until the end of 2018.
Work has already begun at the end of summer with the construction of 3 temporary technological bridges necessary for the delivery of building materials. The first of them has already been built, 1.2 km long. It stands on 58 supports, which are designed to transport up to 250 tons of cargo and exposure to ice. Second bridge and iron technological road will open no later than winter 2018. Now just imagine how much effort and building materials will be needed for such a structure, not to mention the financial costs - the cost of the bridge will cost Russia 230 billion rubles.
In what year will the main bridge be built? After it is approved project documentation, work will begin on the construction of the main Kerch Bridge, which will become a unique construction for engineers, because they must take everything into account and deal with all difficulties, including natural disasters. In terms of its complexity and scale, the Kerch Bridge will be the only one of its kind, since it will absorb the experience gained over the years in the construction of most bridges. Due to difficult geological conditions and tight deadlines, the Kerch Bridge can only be equated to the crossing of the Ob River, which is located in the Tomsk region.
The construction of a bridge from Krasnodar to Crimea across the Kerch Strait is entering the home stretch, as Russian officials say. Even I, although I wasn’t particularly interested in Lately, I heard that almost 70% of the work has been completed. In this regard, from August 3, entry to all adjacent territories and observation platforms of the bridge construction is prohibited - they are taken under protection by soldiers of the Russian Guard.
This is understandable - after all, after the annexation of Crimea and the unsuccessful attempt to break through a land corridor to Russia through Mariupol, this is an object of special attention, including from President Putin personally. True, few people remember that for now this object is a dead end. Even if the bridge is completed on time, the motorist will have nowhere to go after he crosses the Kerch Strait - the federal highway to Simferopol is not ready now and is unlikely to appear in 2018.
I will not go back to the distant past, as is now fashionable in Russia, and talk about the useless Tsar Bell or the meaningless Tsar Cannon. In modern times, there are enough examples of how Russians, successfully overcoming difficulties, implemented gigantic projects. At the same time, they did not receive practical benefits comparable to the costs.
Perhaps the most striking example of Vladimir Putin's reign is the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014. Even according to the Accounts Chamber, the costs of the Games amounted to about 325 billion rubles. According to independent estimates - at least twice as much... And here the money was clearly thrown away. Conceived as a powerful PR stunt, the Olympics were largely forgotten - both inside and outside the country - after the annexation of Crimea in March of that year.
Another example is the bridge to Russky Island in Vladivostok. It was successfully built, with difficulty meeting the deadlines, for the APEC summit. This unique design. And now hundreds of students travel along it to study, because no one else needs the bridge except for them, the route is a dead end, and there is no way to get further than Russky Island except by swimming...
The problem for Russia is traditional - fools and roads. The former are planning to build the latter and, as a result, there are simply no roads yet. A tangle of almost insoluble contradictions is created. Motorists will have a unique opportunity to take a breeze across the bridge over the sea and get stuck in a traffic jam for many hours on the Crimean side. So far, only a couple of kilometers of road have been built on one side of the bridge and a few hundred meters on the other.
As for the railway span of the bridge, the benefit from it will also be very modest until the state company Russian Railways electrifies the Crimean railways. And they plan to tackle this no earlier than 2021...
The gigantic demonstration project will run into impassable roads and for many years will remain, like the Sochi Olympics, a good idea that has run into a Russian imperial impasse.
- coming full swing. They work at eight sites at once. The main outlines of the future bridge across the Kerch Strait are already visible from space. So far, construction is being carried out in full compliance with the schedule. By the end of 2018, the automobile part of the bridge should be launched, and a year later the railway will open. The total length of the Kerch transport crossing will be 19 kilometers.
Another equally important infrastructure project for Crimea is the construction of a new one, which will become a continuation of the Kerch Bridge and will go deep into the peninsula. The length of the future Tavrida will be about 300 kilometers. The route will be of the first category, four lanes - two in both directions - and will run along the route Kerch - Feodosia - Belogorsk - Simferopol - Bakhchisaray - Sevastopol.
Now “Tavrida” is an old road, almost broken in places. And if the new route does not work synchronously with the Kerch Bridge, then a bottleneck effect is guaranteed. All efforts to build the bridge will go down the drain, the crossing will simply stop.
The government has confirmed: there will be money. The schedule has also been announced: until March 2017 - design and survey work, then, according to the head of the Republic of Crimea Sergei Aksenov, in 2018 two Tavrida lanes will be launched - one in both directions - and by 2020 more will be completed.
The construction of the Kerch Bridge and the Tavrida highway is under the special control of President Putin. Sergei Aksenov assures: “All the tasks set by the President of the Russian Federation will be completed on time.”
Houses located in the zone and the Tavrida highway, Crimean authorities. Already in December, Crimeans will begin to move into new apartments. Some new residents have already seen their future home and are satisfied.
In the barn, built with my own hands, there are chickens, ducks and 12 cows. Small farm for big family. The Lokhmatov family has lived in one of the houses on the outskirts of Kerch for more than twenty years. Where in Soviet years there were barracks for the garrison of the Kerch fortress - real barracks without gas, water and toilets. Of all the amenities - only electricity. Lyudmila and her husband did everything here themselves - in fact, they built it anew whole house. We installed water and sewerage. They added rooms for four children. And this is how many people live here.
The beginning of the construction of the Crimean Bridge, which can be observed from virtually every window here, radically changed the lives of almost 80 families. Residents of Cementnaya Slobodka - that’s the name of this district of Kerch - will soon move to new house. The old one is included in the sanitary protection zone of the bridge and is subject to demolition. This is the last autumn when you have to heat your apartment with wood or coal. These houses are still heated by stoves.
The walls are cracked, the roof has almost collapsed. They had been planning to resettle people from these houses for a long time, but there was simply no money in the city budget for this. Now the residents of the cement settlement are in for big changes.
Lyubov Yakovlevna and her grandson Timur are ready to move. They had already collected almost everything - dishes in boxes, summer clothes in bags, carpets rolled up. Live in a house where you've never been overhaul, simply unbearable. The housewarming will be celebrated in December.
For the residents of Cementnaya Slobodka, an entire microdistrict is being built almost in the center of Kerch. Over all stages of construction residential complex monitored by the Crimean Bridge Public Council. This issue is under the personal control of the head of the republic, Sergei Aksenov.
“There will be contact with people,” Aksenov assured. “They will take into account wishes for finishing, no one will abandon anyone. We tried to delve into the details that worried everyone as much as possible. It’s a reputational issue. No one will let you down in terms of deadlines, we will accept quality.”
“The difference between what they had and what they will have is big. This is modern housing. Everything is gasified, the area has the appropriate infrastructure,” said Nikolai Dolgachev, chairman of the Public Council of the Crimean Bridge.
The new residential complex consists of two three-story buildings with autonomous heating. The foundations are ready, the walls are being erected, everything is connected engineering Communication. According to the plan, there will be a children's play area and playground. Two steps from the house there is a school and kindergarten- what the residents of Cementnaya Slobodka sorely lacked.
The Crimean Bridge is also being built at an accelerated pace, in some places even ahead of schedule. From the observation deck, the construction site is in full view. Despite gusty winds and storms, work does not stop for a minute.
The largest and most complex part of the Crimean Bridge is the shipping arch. Now it looks like a huge metal construction set. Arched spans are assembled in stages - in stages. First - the lower parts. This is where cars and trains will travel. The length of the arch will be 227 meters - more than two football fields. Such a long span over the sea is being created for the first time in the history of domestic bridge construction.
Details from jeweler's precision collected into blocks. Each bolt, and more than a million of them are needed for shipping spans, is tightened by the builders by hand. Already under the finished arch, any ships will be able to freely pass from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea and back.
And on the island of Tuzla, builders concreted the first slab of the roadway. This is the basis of the future road surface. The asphalting of the spans will begin simultaneously when all the slabs are concreted. The bridge will open to traffic in two years.
Almost 3 years have passed since the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait received its first contractor, almost a record time for such activities. In March 2018, the President of Russia said that the opening of the bridge could happen earlier than scheduled, which raised many questions - is this so and what will the early delivery of the facility affect?
In fact…
It should be taken into account that there was talk about building a bridge between Crimea and the Taman Peninsula during the times of peaceful relations between Russia and Ukraine, and the first thoughts about this arose back in 2008. Then the residents of both countries were already waiting for the bridge to Crimea to be opened. Russia subsequently included this project in the list of transport strategies for the period until 2030. Initially, negotiations were conducted at the level of prime ministers, then the presidents of the countries returned to the discussion, and in 2013 documents were signed on the start of joint actions to organize this project.
Despite the fact that politics and military actions on the territory of Ukraine prevented joint cooperation between the countries, Russia, after unification with Crimea, decided not to postpone the construction of the bridge indefinitely, so already in 2014, President Vladimir Putin gave the corresponding orders. Thus, when the bridge to Crimea is built, several pressing issues will be resolved at once, for example, the safety of Crimeans, the ease of migration of citizens without the difficulties of crossing the Ukrainian border, etc.
Bridge Feature
Do not forget that the project has not only a short deadline, but also a very a complex system creation. The development features of the flora and fauna of that area were taken into account, advanced technologies were used, consultations were held with hundreds of specialists and about 13 thousand workers were hired. This is the first time such a colossal-scale construction of a bridge has been carried out in our country, so the whole of Russia is looking forward to the construction of the bridge to Crimea.
Of course priority Along with speed came quality. Since it will immediately fall on the structure transport load not only in the form of a highway, but also railway tracks. The length of the bridge to Crimea is 18.1 kilometers for a railway track with two lanes and 16.9 kilometers for a road track with four lanes.
The design was created taking into account all negative situations of a natural and man-made nature, therefore it has an increased degree of stability, protection from storms, strong ice drift, and can also withstand seismic vibrations of up to nine points. The country's largest stormwater treatment system was created. That is, when the bridge to Crimea is built, no waste from it was released into the water and will not be released. The structure itself was subject to modern corrosion treatment.
Well forgotten old
It is difficult to imagine that the Kerch Bridge was planned to be built 10 years ago, combining the efforts of the friendly countries of Ukraine and Russia. However, the plan to connect the Crimean peninsula with transport links southern part It was proposed to Russia by the British. It seemed to the enterprising government of England good option construction of a railway to India just across the Kerch Strait. Then Nicholas II became interested in this project, and even seriously considered it, but the war prevented further plans.
Actually, all this suggests that the Crimean Bridge is a great idea. Interestingly, the length of the bridge to Crimea is longer than the strait itself. Thanks to this, several trading ports will be connected at once. Perhaps the concept of “every cloud has a silver lining” is applicable here, since it is unknown how the fate of the project would have turned out if the president had not decided to make the construction of the bridge the main direction of transport development for the next few years.
When will the bridge across the strait be built?
At the beginning of 2018, we can confidently say that the bridge is ready. The final stages of designing the route and railway remain. The correct alignment of forces, functionality and tasks allowed the contractors not only to meet the stated deadlines, but also to be ahead of schedule. This was first reported at the end of 2017. In a word, the bridge itself is already ready for future loads and is awaiting final preparations before testing and operation. Most systems have been verified through natural exposure and testing. The progress of construction of the bridge to Crimea began to accelerate before the finish line.
News about early delivery
At the beginning of March 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in a few months part of the road bridge to Crimea would be opened. What specific dates the head of state spoke about was not specified. The fact is that the opening of the road to vehicles is already planned for December 2018, but there is a possibility that this will happen even in the summer. However, as the head of the Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, told the media, it is too early to make forecasts in favor of fixed dates. Unfavorable periods associated with the vagaries of nature must pass. As a rule, they last until the end of March, after which an analysis will be made of when exactly the bridge to Crimea will open.
Russians' opinion
All in the same media and in social networks Residents of the country have mixed reactions to such news. Indeed, Russians feel joy and pride as they witness construction on a historic scale. For many, the Kerch Bridge will be a long-awaited event in the development of the country over many years. However, Russian residents are worried about the quality of construction and do not think that it is worth rushing and putting the facility into operation ahead of schedule. We will wait, do not rush - this is the general mood of the citizens of our country. Indeed, everyone appreciated the incredible work carried out by both the head of state himself and the construction teams, and when the bridge to Crimea will be opened - in winter or summer - is not so important for the majority.
Major Event
However, there are this moment actual and specific dates that the whole country is focusing on. They were announced from the very beginning and practically did not change, which, of course, indicates a good calculation. Thus, the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait will be commissioned by the end of 2019. The official date for the opening of road traffic is December 2018 (according to some sources it was moved to May), and the railway tracks will open a year later - in December 2019.
It is expected that local residents will organize a celebration along the entire length of the bridge to Crimea (as far as possible), and the President of the Russian Federation will also take part in the opening. Indeed, this will be one of the most important events in modern history Russia is pleased that we have the opportunity to observe such development of the state. There is no point in counting how much money was spent, but imagine how many nights, efforts, and human labor were spent. The knowledge that the whole country is waiting for this bridge motivates 13 thousand workers to continue working hard. Perhaps, when the bridge to Crimea is finally built, the political situation will change.
